Holderness Case Study (Coastal Management)

Location Map Mappleton is located on the Holderness Coast in East Yorkshire in the United Kingdom

What’s the problem? L The coast are is made up of mainly cliffs (20-30 m) L The coastline is being eroded at a very fast rate (1m/ yr) 4 km of land has been lost since Roman times L Easington Gas Station (part of the North South Gas Terminal) is situation at the top of a cliff What are the factors that make Mappleton vulnerable to erosion? ·      Cliffs are made of soft boulder clay ·      The coast of Holderness is exposed, the waves can have a very long fetch ·      The waves are mainly destructive ·      The beaches are very narrow, since most of the material eroded is washed out to sea, this does very little to protect the coastline ·      Sea level rise threatens the coastline further

What are the impacts? Social - People may have to move or retreat if the coastline continues being eroded - Possible loss of life, not likely humans but maybe animals -Depression and anxiety may happen as people’s home and farmland are threatened Economic -Compensation has to be paid to people who have to move or relocate -Money has to be paid to repair and protect the coastline -Redundancy - Country may experience losses  Environmental -Vegetation and plant life destroyed -Natural landscape destroyed -Loss of habitat for flora and fauna

How it is managed? Hard Engineering ·       In 1991, the decision was taken to protect Mappleton. A coastal management scheme costing 2 million was introduced involving two types of hard engineering ·       – Blocks of granite were imported from Norway for sea defences at the bottom of the cliff and for the two rock groynes. ·       2 rock groynes were constructed in 1991 to encourage the build up of beach in front of Mappleton by trapping longshore drift. This meant that that waves would break on the beach rather than attacking the cliffs. The rock groynes have stopped beach material being moved south from Mappleton along the coast. (However, this has increased erosion south of Mappleton). ·       There is also placement of rock armour along the base of the cliff and the construction of sea walls and revetments as wave-resistant structures at the base of the cliffs. ·       Artificial off-shore breakwaters like tyres and concrete blocks were built, forcing waves to break off-shore.

Range of stakeholders in Mappleton Holderness Council : This is a small authority with low total annual budget. Spending a large amount of money to protect a village is hard to justify. The decision for protecting Mappleton is yet to be decided. Ministry of Agriculture : Moving towards the policy of managed retreat. Although towns, villages and roads would be protected, farmlands and even isolated houses would be regarded as dispensable and allowed to disappear. There are food surpluses in the Europe so they are no longer need every bit of farmland. Farmers : Do not want their land to be destroyed. They ask for even coastal protection so that farmers living in Southern Mappleton would not be at greater risk from the sea.

What my opinion is… I suppose that the council should use a mixture of hard and soft engineering depending on the location if for example farmland and town areas hard engineering would be good, while areas with tourist district, soft engineering would be recommended